Monday, June 18, 2012

What sort of role model do we want our kids to have? Woffles or Vincent?

Over the last week 2 characters have emerged from mundane Singapore life that exemplify very contrasting personal values and characters. To me, they are lessons for us as to what our noble values should be. In today's world our kids are in great danger of being lured into the fast road to wealth, fame and self-centredness.... at all costs. We need to take a pause in our mad rush to wealth to think about what values we should want our kids to have.

On one hand we have a uber-wealthy and influential cosmetic surgeon and socialite, Woffles Wu, hiding behind an old employee just to get out of 2 speeding summons. Whether he pulled strings to get off with a mere slap on the wrist is not the issue here.

On the other side of the coin, we have a working class tour guide, Vincent Toh, leading a group through the deserts of Sinai. When the tour group was unexpectedly attacked by Bedouins, Vincent selflessly offered to be the hostage so that his tour charges could go free. To everyone's relief, Vincent was released after 8 hours of captivity.
Two contrasting characters with very different personal value systems. Who do we want our kids to emulate?

How shallow we ourselves can be in making comments about people - I'm not talking about the comments on Vincent, he's certainly a great guy, laying down his life for his friends.

But, how many people really know Dr Woffles Wu? Why do we keep hanging him over and over again after the Law Minister and AGC had stated their case? What we know is often just but the public image portrayed by the media about him. How many of us knows that he is one doc (successful as he may be) who cares enough to give older people a chance and have for years since he started his private clinic hire such people (I mean old people in their sixties and seventies to enable them to be meaningfully and gainfully employed) to work in his clinic? How many people know that in his kindness he had also hired people and trained them when they desperately need a job but couldn't find one due to limited skills, etc. We can talk about the plight of old folks and the lowly paid workers, but I'll always respect the person who walks the talk and he is certainly one of them. And, I can certainly understand how his staff (many of whom have stayed on for years) are so devoted to him, even to the extent of doing what had been reported.Btw, I'm not related to him in any way nor know him personally, but had the opportunity to observe how he ran his clinc.